Press Digest: Information war on Syria mirrors that against Russia – Assad

Sep 16, 2015

Anna Sorokina

RBTH

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Source: AFP / East News

AFP/East News

RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media on international events, featuring an interview with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, as well as reports on the problems facing transsexuals in Russia’s jails and Ukraine’s impending energy crisis.

Bashar al-Assad hits out at Western
media campaigns against Syria, Russia

The West is conducting an information
campaign against Syria with the aim of proving that President Bashar al-Assad
is personally responsible for all the country's problems. This announcement was
made by Assad himself in an interview with the Russian mass
media, which has been published by the Kommersant business daily.

Assad said that a similar campaign is
being waged against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"As to the president, he assumes
power through the agreement of the people, through elections, and if he steps
down, he steps down because the people demand it, not the U.S. or the UN General
Assembly or the Geneva Conference or the Geneva Communique," said Assad,
responding to the West's calls for him to immediately relinquish power.

In his words, for a long time the U.S.
and the EU have been conducting an information campaign whose aim is to
"create the impression that the Syrian problem boils down to one
personality."

The Syrian president also expressed
his opinion on the West's policy towards Russia.

"What is happening in Syria
resembles the current situation in your region,” he said. “Look what happened
in the western mass media after the coup in Ukraine: For them President Putin
transformed from a friend of the West into an enemy, a tsar, a dictator who
suppresses the opposition, who came to power undemocratically, even though he
was elected through democratic elections that were recognized by the
West."

Speaking about the situation in
Syria, Assad said that the U.S. government does not want to cooperate with the
Syrian government on the fight against ISIS, since from their point of view
such cooperation would mean "accepting the validity" of the action of
government forces.

Jail is no place for transsexuals in Russia

The Gazeta.ru online newspaper writes that Muscovites are
following the fate of transsexual Alina Davis (Dmitry Kozhukhov), who was recently
detained by police for possessing 12 grams of amphetamine.

Possession of such a quantity of
drugs is punishable with a three- to ten-year prison term, although Kozhukhov
was released on condition that he does not leave the country. According to
sources at the law enforcement agencies, inspectors had difficulties assigning
the suspect to an appropriate jail.

"In his documents Kozhukhov is a
man, but in life he defines himself as a woman," says the source.
"Due to this confusion, inspectors were not able to determine which jail
he should be sent to."

It is dangerous to send a transsexual
to a men's prison, while women's prisons do not accept those who are indicated
as men in their passports. In the end the inspectors were able to have
Kozhukhov cooperate with them.

Kozhukhov himself said that he had
already been released from police custody and confirmed that one of the reasons
was precisely the police's indecision about the type of jail he should be sent
to.

Maria Kannabikh, a member of the
Russian Presidential Council on Human Rights, noted that jails usually do not
contain these type of people, but nevertheless they can be found there.

"Occasionally human rights
activists propose legislative initiatives to give this type of people a legal
status and then create special sections in prisons for them. But for now all of
this has just been talk," she said.

Energy catastrophe in Ukraine
becoming inevitable

The Vzglyad online newspaper cites Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Valery Voschevsky as
saying that Ukrainian energy is in a "pre-coronary condition," while
the government has lost control of the situation. "Moreover, the
government is not in command of the energy situation," he added.

The cause of the upcoming
catastrophe, according to Voschevsky, is the political showdown between
President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. "The
contradictions between the two leaders of the government are so clear that they
are tearing apart not only the energy sector but Ukraine itself."

Indeed, a month before the heating
season the country has found itself completely unprepared for the upcoming
winter.

Kiev, convinced that its reserves of
gas from Europe were sufficient, refused to buy gas from Gazprom. Kiev also did
not want to buy coal from the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s
republics of eastern Ukraine, thinking that it would look bad if it financially
helped the uncontrolled territories while it was blockading them economically.
Another reason for the insufficiency in coal is that Kiev has started closing
state mines.

"The 2014 experience showed that
the reduction of coal volumes has a direct impact on the electrical supply in apartment
blocks and private houses. In the second half of last year millions of
Ukrainians throughout the country were left without light and it seems that the
situation will repeat itself this year," said Alexander Koltunovich from
the Ukrainsky Vybor social movement.